Spears Art Studio is a really neat art curriculum. I have found some really neat ideas. Deidra really enjoys art and she is happy to have this program to go along with her drawing materials she already has.
Now this program is written with lesson plans for home schooling and private schools, for kindergarten through high school. But I did not use the lesson plans, which proves you can make the program work for you in your needs.
Now I feel it important to mention the mission statement from Spears Art Studio. I don’t usually copy and paste, but I felt it important to do this one time.
Spears Art Studio MISSION STATEMENT
1. to recognize the hand of God in everything and to give Him glory;
2. to reconnect the Lord as the Supreme Artist to the process and excitement of
learning for both children and educators through the study and activity of art;
3. to provide resources for the Christian educator that:
a. help students make connections between the Creator, creativity, and personal
maturity;
b. are organized for natural learning progression;
c. provide experiences for higher order thinking skills;
d. "stretch" academic and manipulative skills;
e. introduce students to famous artists and artworks incorporated into a seasonal
and/or art elements/principles arrangement of art and craft production.
The company is an affiliate of Dick Blick art materials. This make me feel more comfortable about Spears. As I have ordered painting supplies from Dick Blick in the past for Deidra and am was very pleased with the customer service I received.
Some of the things I like, and I am sure most of you will also, is the scriptural references that go along with the lesson and art project. Included in the lessons are contemporary art, landscaping, life, abstracts, and reproductions.
They cover lots of learning aspects such as hand eye coordination, patterns, asymmetry, symmetry, and a variety of other concepts.
Please enjoy our slide show. One of the projects we did was a fruit bowl. The original plan was to use old scraps of wall paper. Since we are not wall paper people and we have tons of fabric scraps, we used fabric instead. That was an easy change we made.
And for Thanksgiving, we did some projects with the children. We made Indian head dresses and warrior shields with the pictographs from the lesson plans in November. We easily modified the projects to fit our needs. And it was nice to have the children learn something with out even knowing it and they had so much fun drawing "indian language"(thats what they called it) on their shields!
Salem Ridge Press is a family owned business. They republish books from the 1800's and early 1900's in soft cover and hard cover. The books have had some minor editing to be compatible with the company’s moral purity and modesty values.
Some things I liked about the books I like the vocabulary words at the bottom of the pages. The books were centered on God and religion. There were also Bible references on the bottom of the pages in Glaucia the Greek Slave. And I like the ease of picking the right book for the age or your child. There are age’s listed on the books and in the description of the book on the web pages.
I like that my children are learning history as well as moral values and obedience from the characters.
Also if you visit their website, they have categories you can look through to find the right book for you and your children. I love the looks of the books, they are excellent quality and are very sturdy. You can also read a chapter of a book to see if its what you are looking for.
I am looking for books for Christmas. Are you thinking about books for Christmas presents? They are having a special deal right now. Read below to learn more about it.
Thinking About Christmas?
Create a Christmas Wish List on our website and be entered to win five books of your choice absolutely free in time for Christmas!
I want to tell you about a special event. It will save you some money, or a lot of money if you find lots of things to buy!!
The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine is having an amazing sale on subscriptions during their annual Black Friday Sale November 26 – 30. For those 5 days only, they are drastically reducing their one-year subscription price to $7.95! That's the price you would usually pay for just one issue at a bookstore!
This is their lowest price ever on the magazine and they want all of you to take advantage of this offer and share the info with your friends.
Please don't miss out. Your one-year subscription will pay for itself time and time again as you receive practical tips and Biblical encouragement to keep going strong in your commitment to homeschooling and to the Lord. Since it's a quarterly magazine, they even have a monthly subscriber's only E-Newsletter called Teacher's Toolbox that will give you seasonal teaching ideas and a free E-Book download! It's like joining a unit study of the month club! The free E-Books alone are valued at almost $250/year. It's really perfect for people who are homeschooling on a shoestring or just wanting to add in some little extras to your teaching.
Plus during the Black Friday Sale, they have all kind of bonus gifts when you spend $50, $75, $100, or $150. Some are electronic downloads that you can download immediately, while other are physical products mailed from various vendors directly to your home.
AND, their Win Big contest is going on so if you just happen to be customer 67,000, you will receive a prize package valued at almost $500 which includes a $150 gift certificate to the Schoolhouse Store! Who couldn't use that? And you can qualify to win it no matter how much or how little you spend!
Mark your calendars for November 26 - 30th and do a little shopping from your seat, not your feet at the Schoolhouse Store's Black Friday Sale!
When you look at a map of the United States of America, do you see a little man? After looking over this next product, I will never look at a map the same way. Now when I look at a map, the little man in the map, Mim is his name, looks right at me.
Schoolside Press has a really cool and fun way to learn were all the states are on a map.
I always wondered how a meteorologist remembered all the states. I mean I can name most but since I don’t use that everyday in my life I will forget. But after this book I don’t think I will be forgetting any time soon.
As a child I would on occasion try to use symbols or pictures to help me remember certain things. And this book does that. It also uses little rhymes. Each state represents an object and they all fit together like a puzzle.
Through the whole book, Mim, the little man in the map, is teaching your children. He is lots of fun. There are a few “magical” references. I don’t usually let my girls do or watch or read magical things to a certain extent. This is not one of those things I would exclude. Its not as if Mim is off casting spells. He comes alive out of the map. Above all, this product makes it easy and fun to learn the states. Especially for the child who struggles. Or the adult who struggles. It uses your imagination, and imagination is what helps a child learn most of the time.
This product is definitely one of those products that I am glad I received to review. I don’t think I could live with out it as a supplement. I love maps. I have them hanging all over my school walls. Little ones and big ones. This will also be one of the books I show case in the Library section. The only complaint I have is they should have sent the wall map for me to review! (Hint Hint!)
They also have a download for some extra fun!
Product Costs:
The book is a good price at $19.95
The wall map is priced at $21.95
The combo price, both items, is $35.00
They are well worth the price in my humble opinion!
Some mentionables:
Finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Foreword Magazines Book of the Year Award Finalist
ndependent Publisher Book Awards
So you know this book is good!
A word from the reader Dede age 11:
“I am looking forward to using this book when we start doing our geography studies in the new year. Can you write one about Asia? I love Asia, it would be cool to learn were all the countries are in Asia.”
I have been enjoying some free time with Time 4 Learning. This is an online website based curriculum. I will be reviewing it over the next few weeks. This is the first installment and there will be one or two more so make sure to come back.
Here is how it works. The girls have their own log in page; parents have their own log in too. Once they log in they have a Student Launch pad were all the subjects are listed. Those would include, for Kiana’s lower level grade; Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, and LA Extensions.For Deidra, she has the option to log in to the playground area, which she has not done so this will be in the next review.
There is an option for assignments. But to be honest I have yet to figure this out. But its not been an issue for us because we keep a daily planner and I put in the planner what pages they need to be doing. Some days we only do Language Arts. Other days we will do Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies.
Soap Box moment:
I know some of you strictly teach creation. This program is from a secular view and so the theory of evolution is the bases for the science program. I do not have a problem with this, but some might. If that is the case I would suggest skipping the science portion or just preview it before you let your child to see if it’s appropriate for your family.I on the other hand do not shy away from evolution. There is a portion of the science that talks about dinosaurs. As Deidra was doing this lesson, she tells me “Mom, dinosaurs were not alive millions of years ago”. She knows that as a creationist, we believe the bible as the true word of God. And that means the earth is just 6000 years old and in the bible it talks about dinosaurs, in its own words, and how they did live with people. But I do think your child would need to be mature enough to be able to know the difference between the THEORY of Evolution and the TRUTH of the Bible.
I think it’s important to know both sides when it comes to defending your faith on a scientific level. So I do not shy away from the theory of evolution.
Also, keep in mind, if your child is going to go to college, he or she will have to know the theory of evolution. It is what the colleges thrive on. And if your child does not have a good foundation in science, they will be eaten alive by professors who believe that evolution is truth and not theory.
End Soap Box moment.
This program is a lot of fun. There are lots of animations. The girls are addicted to it. They want to continue to do the program for the rest of the school year.And I am seriously considering it.
I can keep track of their progress reports in either 1 week, 1 month, or by date range. I can assign what I want them to do (as soon as I figure it out). I can see test’s they have done.I can set time limits, which is very important. But with the girls, they want to be on it all day long. It’s like a game to them. They are learning and having fun.
I will keep you posted on how things are going. We will see if they ever get bored. I was considering another program similar to this, but I think the price per year for all the subjects is comparable. The other program did have bible and it is creation science.The other program you buy upfront software CD’s. With this program you pay monthly and it is all online. This way you don’t have to pay for a whole year curriculum up front. Which means if things change in your family situation, and you don’t want to use the rest, you can cancel? So I do like this aspect better.
You get all this for just $19.95 a month for the first child and $14.95 for the second child.
But I will post again so stay tuned! I hope this is not too long for you. I have lots to say. As I write my reviews from the heart.
If you want to check out the demo please do so and FAST! I promise you will like it.
I am very excited about this product. It is called All About Spelling. I am truly happy about this product as it has helped us tremendously. Kiana was into doing this program. This is one were we will continue to use it through out the school year. She loves it that much.
This program does have lots of cutting out of word cards, alphabet and so on. We also purchased a little card box to keep track of all the cards. They give you dividers so you know were to put the cards. So be prepared for some easy prep work. It is not hard so don’t worry! I also want to mention that the lesson plans are written out easily and in my opinion, short. As I hate long instructions. That will defer me from using a product really fast.
We started off with Level 1. There are a total of 4 levels available now with more to come.
We breezed through lessons 1-12. We did this as a refresher course. Then we decided to start with Lesson 13 and take it slow. Kiana is a very kinesthetic hands on learner. So this worked perfect for her. The cards (alphabet, sllyables) onto a magnetic board or table is fine. We used a magnetic white board.
In this picture Kiana is counting "sounds" with the tokens.
In order to add this to our day, we did do away with our other spelling curriculum. It takes about 30-45 minutes to get through a lesson. Depending on your child you could take less time or more time if needed. One of the things we love is she can do her spelling words right on the board. In reality, Kiana can spell these words but she has trouble pronouncing certain sounds. Like with much, she would spell it "mutch" because when she says it she puts the 't' in there. This program is tackling this challenge she has with her pronunciation.
This is being covered in every lesson. There is review and building on what she has already learned. I believe the concepts are taught in the perfect order for her to remember and implement in her everyday writing.
I really cant come up with anything I am unhappy about with this program. It is well thought out and is so easy to implement in your day. We like to spend a little more time on our Language Arts with Kiana because this is the subject she struggles with. She use to hate Language Arts, but with this program and a few others we are doing, she loves it now. We have fun and laugh while learning.
This program is a blessing to us and I know it could be a blessing for you. It is not a big investment either. I would expect to pay a lot more for this program. So here are the logistics. I am only showing you the information for level 1. You need to check out the other levels if you need something for an older child.
Price: level 1 is $29.95
Additional Material Packet (for extra child): $12.95
Letter Tiles, necessary item must have: $9.95
Magnets for letter tiles, to use with magnetic board: $5.95
I have the privilege of reviewing a great product for new home schoolers, or for experienced home schoolers who would like some fresh ideas and resources. This review is a little harder for me to write as I don’t want to give away too much information but give you enough to spike your interest. Plus, it was hard for me, with my attention span, to actually sit down and read the lessons.
I put a lot of my thoughts in as well. I just felt like I should share more of what I was thinking while doing these lessons. I guess it made it a bit more personal. I hope you don't mind. I have been through the first 8 lessons, and I will update as I progress through till the end.
This is a really great product and I have tons of notes on it. So here goes!
Knowledge Quest is offering a study on Homeschooling ABC's for new home schoolers. You get 26 lessons, one for each letter of the alphabet! These lessons are full of resources and free curriculum samples.
The bible curriculum they offer as a download sample has become my #1 favorite bible study! But I will fill you in on that in another review specifically about them, as this review is specifically about Homeschooling ABC's from Knowledge Quest.
Terri, the writer, offers you step by step ideas as to not overwhelm you. And that is one thing I can struggle with. I get overwhelmed if I am trying to write my own unit studies for all my subjects.
One thing I liked was when I was reading, it was like a friend was talking to me. She explains things in a friendly way so that it's easy to understand.
She really likes to build on your relationship with your children. There is more on this in Lesson 2. I think this is extremely important. I mean, that is one of the reason's you want to home school, to have a better relationship with your children. To be home were they belong, with you. It has made us closer. We are learning together. We are spending more quality time with each other. What a blessing.
Lesson 3 was a big help to me. I don’t want to spoil it but it talked about not copying the classroom, which is hard for me. We felt like in order for the girls to take schooling serious that we should be like a classroom.
Some of the things she talks about are learning styles and how to incorporate that in your teaching environment. You will also learn about the different teaching styles like un-schooling, traditional, classic, and how to pick your curriculum. She also gives you, the teacher, weekly assignments. Don't worry, they aren't bad.
Do you struggle with trying to decide which curriculum is worthy? Terri goes over and suggests some curriculum to look at. Everyone wants something to fit their family needs, and she gives you some options for each subject. I have tons of curriculum catalogs, and it’s hard to make a decision.
You may be asking your self "What about fun stuff?" There are craft ideas as well as games. One of the things she talks about and I know lots of home schoolers do it, but I just don’t want to. Networking with other home schooler's as in Co-op's. The only Co-op I know of in my area has restrictions and rules, rules that you have to plan activities every so often. I have a hard enough time planning my own stuff and don’t want to be bothered with planning for others. I do agree on spending time with other home schoolers though. I just do it on a not so formal way. My preference, you may think otherwise.
There are over 100 dollars worth of samples of curriculum, and to me that is fun trying out new things. Especially being new to home schooling, you get to try some things out before you go and buy them and find out later, after you have spent your money that they didn't work for you.
Terri offers so much information. It’s all in one place instead of doing all the research yourself. These lessons are one of a kind. She has put a lot of hard work and lots of time in to this and it shows. It has been a blessing to me and my family having the opportunity to use this product and review it.
My only suggestion for Terri would be to send the second lesson soon after the first. I felt the first lesson was just a warm up and I was eagerly awaiting the second lesson to begin.
Do you like CSI: Miami? We love CSI: Miami. Horacio Cane is our favorite! We love cop and FBI TV shows and crime movies. Like James Bond and Oceans and Mr. and Mrs. Smith (written with us in mind )
Let me tell you about a great little book that we really enjoyed. It was written by a homeschooler. How cool is that. So it should be really good RIGHT? The book is available from Media Angels and its called The Missing Link: Found . They focus on Creation Science which is what makes the company so amazing to me. The book is $8.99 and is very worth every penny. Right now they are having a special. You can get the whole series for just $22.00. Its a great deal.
Well the book started right off on some cool and exciting action. We used the book as a read aloud, so we were all glued to the pages. We were picturing Horacio, Agent Wolfe, Agent Delko, and my personal favorite Agent Calleigh commandeering the boat at the beginning.
There was a shoot out, and bullets were flying. And 2 kids being nosy and almost getting shot. The action was great. The kids were a little disobedient and the parents not up on discipline though.
The book did start to slow down, as all the good action was at the beginning. There is the science part of the story. Their uncle had unearthed something but he gotten sick and was in the hospital. So the kids had to be good examples and supportive of their cousin who believed in evolution.
You may be wondering how the kids kept their Christian faith and faith that creation is real. You will have to read the book to find out how it all turns out. You wont be disappointed.
I found the book to be very entertaining. Its not a literature rich book. There are some editing issues but to me this is not important because you will find those types of mistakes in major books also. What makes it even better for us is that this was the effort of a homeschool girl. Especially since I have an 11 year old who loves to write stories. So I kept an open mind and looked at this book as a mom who has a child writer. I wasn’t overly picky and I did not set the standards high like I would for an adult book.
I am looking forward to purchasing the rest of the series.
I wanted to share with you something else about Media Angels. They have online classes. I have not personally done the classes but I plan on doing them. I have heard they are great and others have really enjoyed them. You can learn more about them HERE.
I look forward to sharing more with you. I have tons more reviews that I am working on so come back soon for some more. I am in the process of writing and also previewing some items. Lots in the works. I am happily busy on them.
Did you know Rime is a word? Are you wondering if its Rhyme? Well, its not. And here is the definition of both:
RIME: words that sound alike AND look alike. For example: the at in Pat, cat, sat.
RHYME: words that sound alike but not always look alike. For example: care, hair, where.
Kiki has always been a struggling reader so I was happy to have been blessed with these books to review. They use a color coded system, like I used about in the definition of Rime. This makes it easier to learn how to pronounce the words. If they look alike they most sound alike.
This is how the program works. You have 2 choices on how to read the books. You can print them out and give them to your child. Or you can do what we did. We read ours online. And they are working on the sound feature so if your child needs help with a word s/he can click the color coded word and have the word read to them.
Since both my girls already know how to read, we could not use the program to teach reading. I can say that Kiki loved reading them. It helped her with going back to basics and reinforcing her skills that she was struggling with. She started off reading and went from one book to the next. The books do have more words added as you go through them so you will want to do them in order.
She also loved to turn the pages and play with them. To turn the pages you can click the big arrows or use the little turn downs in the corners of the page. She thought it was fun making the pages go back and forth. But that’s my girl, if she cant have fun she wont enjoy it.
So now you may be wondering how to get this wonderful program. You need to go to their website. But before you go I want to let you know you get one free trial book. The program has a total of 20 books. And your child can reread them over and over. That helps build that proper foundation by reinforcing.
If you want to know more you can visit their faqs as there is so much information there that I could not possibly share it all with you. There may be specific questions you may have that I can not answer since I did not use this program as a learning to read tool. I used it as a reinforcement.
I love that slogan! It's so fitting for this Christian Toy website called One2believe. As we are to put on our armor of God. And these toys have their armor on and they want to win back the toy box!
I specifically wanted to talk to you about one particular product, The Nativity Set. It is the cutest, funniest, creative set I have seen. No vegetables here! Real life looking people, well cartoon looking people.
The colors are vibrant. The faces are happy. Even baby Jesus has a sweet happy face. Not like all those drabby nativity sets. You say "Ok we get the point. It's cute. What about fun!"
My little sweeties just had to open this right away when it came in the mail. I loved the packaging so much I didn't want to open it. But they couldn't wait. They carefully opened the box. Then Dede took out each character and placed them all in a spot. All the time Kiki was asking when is she gonna get to play because Dede was hogging it. I was thinking Dede, at 11, would not want to play with this. I knew Kiki, at 8, would want to play with it. So that surprised me. As a reminder, this set is made of pvc and smaller children should not be aloud to put it in the mouth. There is an age limit of 3+ for this reason.
There is a little book telling of the story of Jesus’ birth. It's a small size perfect for smaller hands. The story is easy to read.
We saved the background from inside the box to use as a back drop for this Christmas. I am very happy that I received this nativity set to review. I had to throw the old one away last year since it had been played with so much over the years it was falling apart. This one, I have faith in it, will last us many years.
I hope your as excited about this Nativity Set as I! I hope you can get excited about winning back your toy box for Christ! This site gives me a reason to clean out all those old secular toys. I have my eyes on the P31 dolls.
I also want to mention they have another program. It's called Blessed Toys. They have distributers called Messengers and you can search for one in your area. They also offer a fundraising program. I think I may look more into becoming a Messenger! What a blessing you could be to others by offering safe Christian products from home, and earn some Christmas money!
Hi, We are Niki, Deidra, and Kiana!
We are here to share our experiences with others. One of our big projects is reviewing home school products. We are excited to do this for The Old schoolhouse Magazine. As you read my reviews, keep in mind that when I write I do it from my heart. That is how I like to read reviews. I want to know someone's true heart on a product or service, not just all the technical stuff. I want you to feel how excited I am about a product.
There is also another project in the works. I will post about later.
So Have Fun! Leave a Comment! And Stay Close To Jesus! God Bless You All!
